Mid Trent Cancer Network - Information for you (i4u)

On Friday 11 July three support centres for people affected by cancer officially opened in hospitals in Lincolnshire. 

The centres, based at Lincoln County Hospital, Pilgrim Hospital in Boston and the Grantham and District Hospital, offer advice and information.

The centre at Lincoln County Hospital was  opened by John Lockwood, High Sheriff of Lincolnshire, the one at Grantham and District Hospital by Rory Underwood, ex English rugby player and Tommy Taylor, Manager of Boston United Football Club opened the centre at Pilgrim Hospital.

The centres, funded by Macmillan Cancer Support working in partnership with United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust,  provide information and support to anyone affected by cancer, either directly or because a family member or friend has been diagnosed with cancer.

Macmillan Information and Support Services Lead for ULHT, Caroline Boyer, said:  "We are delighted that people will now be able to find the help and support they need wherever they live in Lincolnshire.

The National Information Prescription Pilot Project ended in March and the final report of Mid Trent Cancer Network has just been published. The reports outlines the project and what lessons have been learned. It also looks forward to the continued use and roll out the other areas of information prescriptions beyond the pilot phase.

Read the report here

The Mid Trent Cancer Network, based at Nottingham's hospitals, is one of just four cancer networks in the country to take part in a national trial of information prescriptions to help patients in the fight against cancer.

The new information prescriptions are designed to help patients regain control of their lives following a diagnosis of cancer, by ensuring they have the right information, in the right way, at the right time to enable them to make informed decisions about their treatment and the issues affecting them and their families.

Each prescription is tailored to meet the needs of every individual patient at that moment in time and is added to and expanded as the patient's treatment progresses. The prescriptions ensure all the information a patient will need is kept together in one place and can be taken from hospital clinic, to GP appointment and shared - at the discretion of the patient - with other support agencies and with friends, carers and family.

Information Prescriptions for End of Life Care are being developed within the Mid Trent Cancer Network.  This work includes the exciting devleopment of an end of life care information pathway, and the end of life care information prescription is designed to support and complement this. It is important to mention that this IP is for all patients in the last year of life, irresepctive of their condition.

A workshop was held on the 23rd January 2008 to develop this concept further. (See Photos) The full report of this important event can be found going to the 'Our Information Prescriptions Pilot Project' section of the website and srolling down to the IP reports page. 

A number of pilot sites have signed up to testing this out and we have commitment from one of the PCT's to roll this out more widely. 

 A report on The Patient Information Project 2004 - 2006 has been published by Cancerbackup, the national charity that specializes in giving information on all types of cancer. Working in conjunction with the Mid Trent Cancer Network this project aimed to help the Network become early adopters of the Supportive and Palliative Care Guidance for Adults with Cancer. The findings of the report have been used in the design and implementation of the Information Prescription Pilot Project.

For the purposes of the project the team concentrated on lung and head and neck cancer starting from the point of the patient's first symptoms. The research team carried out an evaluation of the information needs of those affected by these cancers with the aim of developing a model of cancer information delivery. They also made recommendations for best practice in these areas.